Karnataka - Bellary

Congress leaders unite to organise Bellary convention

Staff Correspondent

Party workers' meet will be held on October 18

BELLARY: After a long gap, all Congress leaders in the district shared a platform to discuss and organise the district-level convention of party workers scheduled to be held on October 18. They appeared to have buried all their differences.

The coming together of all Congress leaders has surprised many, for the party in the district is known to be a divided house.

With almost all leaders indulging in the game of one-upmanship, it had cost the party dearly in the previous general elections to the Lok Sabha and Assembly, when it lost all but one seat in the district having eight Assembly segments.

What was more shocking was that the party, for the first time, lost the Bellary Parliamentary constituency, which is among the very few constituencies in the country to be held by the Congress from 1952 to 1999. The Bharatiya Janata Party avenged its defeat of its party leader Sushma Swaraj to President of All India Congress Committee Sonia Gandhi in 1999 by winning the seat in 2004.

The party also managed to win three Assembly seats — Bellary, Kudligi and Sirguppa.

Bhagirathi Marulasiddanagowda was the lone Congress candidate to retain her seat from Kottur constituency.

Defeat

After the humiliating defeat, none of the Congress leaders made any public appearances.

It is after a gap of 16 months that the party leaders have resurfaced to organise the party workers' convention.

Minister for Women and Child Development Ms. Marulasiddanagowda, former Ministers Allum Veerbhadrappa, Mundlur Ramappa and M. Diwakar Babu, MLCs K.C. Kondaiah and K.S.L. Swamy, former MP Kolur Basavanagowda, former zilla panchayat presidents Venkatarao Ghorpade and G. Umesh, former MLAs Gujjal Jayalakshmi and Siraj Sheikh, president of Congress Women's Wing Kamala Mariswamy, President of the district unit of Congress womens' wing, were among several other party leaders to participate in the meeting.

Naseer Ahmed, former Minister, and Kariyanna arrived as observers.

Mr. Veerbhadrappa, who has been made the convenor for the proposed programme, said that the leaders have unanimously agreed to make the party workers' meet successful besides taking steps to strengthen the party.

Mr. Babu, Mr. Sheikh and Mr. Kondaiah have been nominated as the deputy convenors.

Mr. Babu said party leaders will tour all the taluks to mobilise support and strengthen the party.

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